Pink News: Oops!

Pink News - Europe's worst gay news service - led with this story over the weekend;
'Video: US student tells of ‘gay cure’ torture at hands of father'
"An American student has described how he was tortured for a month by his father in an effort to turn him heterosexual.
"Samuel Brinton, a student at Kansas State University, said his Southern Baptist missionary father beat him, burned him and shocked him with electric currents..."
It's moving stuff.
And as you can see from the 120-plus comments it's also the sort of sentimental guff that really moves apolitical simpletons who read Pink News.
Squish squish. *Makes sad face*.

American blogger Towleroad picked up the story - but then quickly had to run the following apology:

Astute commenters have pointed out that the video is old, even though it's suddenly the top story at Europe's Pink News today. Towleroad covered it in 2010, before I came on board.

Wayne Besen, founder of Truth Wins Out, writes in the comments field below:

Truth Wins Out has tried verify this story for more than a month. Our phone calls have gone unanswered. We hope that the full range of facts can come to light. For example, who was the specific therapist who performed these abusive actions? We are always pleased when "ex-gay" survivors are brave enough to come foward and share their experiences. We look forward to Samuel providing further information in the very near future.

And another comment, from Ninong: "Apparently his parents accepted him after that interview because he has a picture of the entire happy family at his college graduation ceremony, May 31, 2011 on his Facebook page."

In fact this was yet another story Pink News had stolen from the Daily Mail and not bothered to check.

Well done Pink News - another winner!

PS Competition time! Can anyone tell me of a single instance where Pink News's hopeless and lazy editor Jessica Geen has actually bothered to check a story?

Liam Fox & Adam Werritty: Tomorrow's News Today!

The second most read story on Pink News this Friday evening has been this one about Liam Fox.
It was written by publisher Benjamin Cohen and dates from 2005!
Pink News has not written about the current scandale.
Well, why would they?
No-one would have sent them a press release about it, and it won't come up if you type "gay" into Google News.
How interesting - and how very sad - that many of Pink News readers know what the biggest "gay story" of the day is, but the people writing PN don't have a fucking clue.
Fagburn has no idea if they are actually fucking, but the - often homophobic - chatter on, say Guido Fawkes, makes it a story.
Didn't this happen last year with the William Hague-Christopher Myers story?
Not a word on Pink News all week while it was the talk of Westminster.
Then a piece suddenly appeared over the weekend attributed to "Staff Writer" (Ben Cohen, presumably).
Why don't you hire a journalist, Ben?
Someone who knows what's going on.
And who isn't so clueless they can't see a gay subtext to a story?
You shouldn't have to do Jessica Geen's job for her.
It's an insult to your (far better-informed) readers.

Liam Fox: And His Best Man

"And former flatmate..."
Liam Fox and Adam Werritty look like being this year's William Hague and Chris Myers.
Anyone else remember when Liam Fox was "romantically linked" with Natalie Imbruglia?
I wonder what Dr Fox thinks about gay marriage?
Oh what a tangled web these Tories weave.

Pink News: Straight Tory News

The Tory-loving shitstorm of an excuse for a gay news outlet that is Pink News - written by a thick straight person - has just come out in support of another right wing goon.
What a surprise.
'Ken Livingstone’s an old retread, says gay deputy London mayor'
I bet he said "retard", you big "retread".
AAARGH!!!

Update: More Tory-loving crap from Pink News here!

EastEnders: Again!? Oh FFS!!!

The Daily Mail is positively fucking fuming today!!!
'EastEnders sparks uproar with gay bedroom scene before the watershed'
How very peculiar that the Mail failed to notice this "uproar" when the scene was broadcast a fortnight ago.
The Mail also failed to notice the "audience backlash" when a message putting the dampeners on this supposed "backlash" was posted on the BBC Complaints website last week.
I guess the Mail only noticed this non-story after a record-breakingly stupid piece was published by The Guardian online on Sunday;
'The EastEnders furore shows gay equality is still a long way off'
But there was no furore - before this pointless piece was published by The Guardian, only the freesheet Metro had bothered to write about it.
But anyway, do go on...
"At least 125 viewers complained that a scene featuring the characters Christian Clarke and Syed Masood was inappropriate for the show’s pre-watershed slot.
"The pair were lying in bed together, with no tops on, and bedclothes pulled up to their chests. The two characters, who are trying to adopt and are planning a civil ceremony, also shared a brief kiss..."
And how has the Mail chosen to illustrate this?
With two screengrabs showing the pair lying in bed together, with no tops on, and bedclothes pulled up to their chests, one of which - above - shows them sharing a brief kiss.
Oh dear...
The Mail also quotes freely from the nutter magnet that is the BBC's messageboards;
"I’m not a homophobe but really do not want to see gay men in bed naked and kissing, especially whilst my ten-year-old daughter is sitting with me, before the watershed. Might be socially acceptable to some but there is a time and place and definitely not before nine o’clock, confusing my kids. There was no warning."
Well said, nutter!
How ironic that the most headbangingly annoying non-story since the Mail's made-up story about a "pre-watershed gay kiss ban" involves a twisted non-story that ultimately rests on the BBC trying to patiently explain that there is and will be no pre-watershed gay kiss ban.
FFS!

Update: And then the Mail's story gets regurgitated in today's Evening Standard; 'BBC defends EastEnders gay scene after receiving 125 complaints' AARGGHH!!!!!!!!

Update 2: And finally... at 1.40pm Tuesday, this is puked up yet again with the same homophobic spin as the Mail story it's lifted from by the useless Jessica Geen at Pink News. Resign!

Update 3; The Daily Star noticed the "TELLY FANS FURY" on Wednesday.

Pink News: Good News/Bad News

There have been some great posts on Pink News in the last few days - angry impassioned stuff about the BBC getting Christian Voice's Stephen Green to comment on Elton John and David Furnish's son.
Here is the latest; 'Exclusive - BBC: Gay execution supporter interview was required to ‘balance’ Elton John baby coverage'
"A spokesman for the corporation told PinkNews.co.uk that the interview with a right-wing Christian fundamentalist allowed the BBC News at Six to reflect a genuine debate over the issue of surrogacy for gay couples..."
An in-no-way hysterical comment piece advising angry Pink News readers to stop paying the BBC licence fee made it into The Independent.
Pink News has published five posts on this story in the last few days - doing exactly what you want the gay media to do; agitate, educate, organise.
It is worth noting that none of these stories or op-eds have a by-line and were published over the Christmas break.
Fagburn will hazard a guess that they were all written by Pink News' founder Ben Cohen.
And when Pink News' famously useless "editor" Jessica Geen returns from the holidays "Europe's largest gay news service" will return to cut and pasting press releases.
Shame!

Equality Law: Now You're Just Being "Ridiculous"

The Tories class war continues apace.
'Fury as Theresa May scraps equality law' - The Daily Mirror.
"Home Secretary Theresa May was accused of a shocking attack on the poor yesterday after scrapping an equality law.
"Councils will no longer need to consider disadvantages and inequalities in their policy decisions."
Of course this has pleased those on the right.
'Theresa May will today scrap a ‘ridiculous’ Harriet Harman equality law dubbed ‘socialism in one clause’' - The Daily Mail
May's speech about ending "Harman's law" was "leaked" to the Mail.
Reading between the lines, more worryingly the Conservatives seem to be abandoning any commitment to equality - now they will talk of "fairness".
The Home Office press release announced;
"Controversial rules that would have forced all public bodies to focus spending and services on poorer areas at the expense of better-off communities were today scrapped."
But in a piece of spin as obvious as an iceberg it adds;
"The speech also underlined the government’s ongoing commitment to equality and fairness."
Really? Do go on...
"This included the Home Secretary announcing that a measure in the Freedom Bill will allow people who were prosecuted for having consensual gay sex at a time when this was illegal to apply to have their convictions deleted from criminal records."
May also said in her speech; "...we will give schools the power to take tough action to tackle bullying, including homophobic and transphobic bullying."
Verily, the Conservatives giveth and the Conservatives take away.
Even if they don't say how they will giveth in practical terms.
Would anyone fall for this?
"Minister for Women and Equalities Theresa May has spoken out on a new equalities strategy, announcing that those harboring convictions for consensual gay sex should soon be able to apply to have their records cleared," Jamie Tabberer writes on PinkPaper.com.
"She added: “We will give schools the power to take tough action to tackle bullying, including homophobic and transphobic bullying."
"May will however scrap an inequality measure that would have called for public bodies to address class inequalities introduced by Harriet Harman, labeling it 'ridiculous'."
Pink News' headline reads; ''May scraps ‘ridiculous’ equality duty but promises new action on anti-gay bullying'
Ridiculous innit?

Press Briefing: We're Making The News

And in other news today - yes there is some - there's some stuff about The Gays and the news in the news.

A gay bloke has asked another gay bloke to marry him via the front-page of London's Metro!
I thought he sounded a bit flash and creepy when I heard, but apparently he won a competition where the prize was a Metro cover to do what thou wilt with so that's not quite so bad, I suppose.
And if it made some bigot's commute a bit more miserable this morning then it's all good with me.
Apparently, the other gay bloke has said yes.
No, I'm not really bothered either, but in a spirit of fraternal solidarity I hope it all works out better for them than it does for those other two people who've announced their engagement today.

Sir Elton of John will be guest editing a special edition of The Independent (and i!) for World Aids Day!
Bono did this in 2006 and it was predictably pretty wanky, but Fagburn is pressing the pause-button on his cynicism for this one.
When Mr John has contributed to newspapers in the past he's often shown an admirable internationalist perspective, he does get angry about stuff that people should be angry about, and he does have an interesting set of close-personal-showbiz-friends to call on for the other stuff.
Elton also knows some goons like Rush Limbaugh and Eminem, but let's hope for the best.
The Independent claims; "He is said to have already begun planning the special edition of The Independent."
I should ruddy hope so too, he's only got a fortnight.

And finally... just for once Pink News has an item of news that you won't have already read somewhere else ages ago!
"Wanted: A staff writer for PinkNews.co.uk"
Pink News used to be edited/written by Tony Grew - probably the best news journalist the British gay press has ever had.
It is currently edited/written by Jessica Geen - who's hopeless and clueless.
Fagburn sincerely hopes Pink News choose a new Grew this time.

Pink News: Happy Birthday Pink News!

By Fagburn Staff Writer

PinkNews.co.uk is five years old today.
From humble beginnings, the site has gone downhill quickly and is now the worst gay news source in Europe and the second worst globally.
In the last five years, they've brought the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans community a load of reprinted press releases and unchecked wire stories.
They've worked to tell their readers not to question anything and earlier this year, extracted a range of meaningless vague election promises from the beloved leaders of the new coalition government.
But they've also focused on gay rights further afield, reporting on the plight of those persecuted in homophobic countries such as Wales and Scotland, plus reports from lavish free press trips to Pride celebrations as diverse as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Their top stories include that time got into big trouble over that Ashley Cole photo, the one about how Europe's "leading gay news source" is actually edited and written by a straight woman.
PinkNews.co.uk publisher and founder Benjamin Cohen said: "When I started PinkNews.co.uk, I never envisaged it would become this bad. I just wanted to publish journalism so piss poor it couldn't get published elsewhere."
"I quickly realised that there was no need for broadsheet quality reporting in the LGBT community."
"It was incredible during the last general election that we seemed to make the newspapers two, maybe three, times with quite minor stories about comments from homophobic Tory candidates or our tracker poll which measured the voting intentions of 14 LGBT people."
"In the past five years, we've also had fantastic editors – Marc Shoffman, Tony Grew and Jessica Geen.
"Obviously I'm joking, only Tony Grew was any good."
"The future is incredibly exciting as we look to increase commercialisation to support my piggy bank and we have an even worse new design coming in the next few weeks.
"Some say that with the election of the Tories and with David Cameron as Prime Minister - a man we've been championing ever since we started - our work here is done.
"I assure you all, we've only just begun."

What has your experience of PinkNews.co.uk been? Can they get any worse? Click here to leave a comment.